Wild Card
by XxKat-OF-ShadowsxX
Summary: Two completely different girls. One a thief. The other a mafia heiress. One hunted by a tragic past, the other trying to move on. How are they friends?


Okay, I wrote all of this but the ideas of this story are shared with my co-author, tsuki1613. Her part is Kera's part, I just highly edited it.

I do not own Death Note, and this is strictly a work of fiction any person(s) that seem to be related are purely coincidence, and are in no way afflicted to any organizatons mentioned, nor do we want to offend anyone (i say this in case a mafia member reads this and sees any smilarities)

In any case I hope that anyone who reads this enjoys it, there are other characters but this is a death note story, we tried the best we could to make this exciting and as far from any mary-sue crap as possible whist staying in Wammy student abilities.

I am truely not expecting any fans out of this, but if you do read this and like it, I personally would very much appreciate it! ^^

* * *

An old butler-like man walked into a nearly empty room, he scanned the entire room before letting his gaze rest on the young dark haired man hunched over his computer near the far wall.

"Wammy, to what do I owe this pleasure?" the young man asked, his gaze never wavering from the glowing screen in front of him.

The one called Wammy walked over to the hunched figure and placed a manila folder in front of him. Dark circled eyes flicked from screen to the bold lettering on the folder reading '**Alice of Aces**'.

"She stole Da Vinci's Journal from a museum in the United States, L" Wammy said as the great detective flipped through the folder, "It was returned to the museum in a protective box found on a toilet in the women's lavatory next to a room containing a Monet under high security."

Wammy dropped some pictures down onto the file, crime scene pictures of the sealed metal box, the diary inside, and an ace of spades card found on a page in the diary with a red 'l-i-c-e' added after the black printed 'A'.

"Haven't we already gone over her case, my friend? You would remember, I hope, your scolding of me not to interfere with her life by catching her." L said, an amused twinkle in his eye as he gazed upon his mentor.

Wammy's face remained serious, "Yes, but to my intelligence, the American mafia has taken a keen interest in having the Alice of Aces in their ranks. Even to this extent."

L flipped a sheet over and saw files on micro chips and schematics on the human brain.

"I believe you know what the Americans are implying through those"

L gave a slight nod flipping the one page to the next and raised his brow, "The Americans hired the Greek mafia? Interesting. Don't they have that illustrious Crescent Moon? That young intelligence specialist will no doubt be put onto the famous Alice of Aces case."

A small silence followed as L finished looking over the last few pages of the file.

"I want them in the orphanage, L" Wammy stated bluntly, "As long as I live I will not let children as those to be used in such a way by the world. The Greek mafia is losing whatever respectability it had, while the mafia leader's previous leader was a fine woman, her son unfortunately is a horrendous man. The Crescent Moon will soon be forced into something unbearable by her father and as formidable a fighter the Alice of Aces is with as much intelligence she has, she is in danger for her life by thousands of men, and she probably won't even know it until it's too late. I want you to do this before you face off with this Kira."

L looked up at Wammy, the hint of a smile reserved only for that man surfaced in his eyes.

"Ahh London, how I love to return to this place after so long. Damn I've been so busy the last time I was here was after the diamond heist." She chuckled to herself and stepped idly off the large cruse ship.

The girl walked down the docks and into the streets of London giving off a carefree and careless air, when in fact all of her senses were on high alert. Ever since the mafia in America had approached her with their business she had been on alert. They thought just because her parents had been the top agents when they were alive that their daughter would have the same obligation to let them reel in her talents to their sticky net. She didn't want to follow in her parent's footsteps and have the restrictions or commitment that they had by their job. She was Alice and could live freely, lived and did things her own way.

***

In L.A. Alice heard loud pounding at her temporary apartment door, "Hey open up, Alice! We's need ta talk ta ya! Heeeey! Open U-"

Alice jerked to door open, annoyed, "What the hell? Get some freaking manners!"

On the other side of her doorframe were four men in black suits. All of them, under Alice's keen eye, were packing some serious heat.

"Oh it's you," Alice leant against her doorframe, "So Johnny, what brings your slimy face to my door? You know I'm hitting east city tomorrow, I don't want anyone getting…" Alice peered at the other suits who kept their hands on their guns, "suspicious."

Johnny spat a stereotypical toothpick from his mouth, a frown on his face, "This is serious girl. We could lose our lives for bein' 'ere. The least you's could do is invite us in."

Alice hesitated for a moment, there was a real fear in the eyes of everyone there, then she jerked her head, motioning them inside. A sigh of relief echoed between the group and they all shuffled inside the basically furnished room, the men looking back and forth down the hallway for any prying eyes as they did so.

When they were seated, Alice poured each man a cup of coffee and sat down a cup of tea in her own hands, "You were never one to be fearful of a chat, Johnny. Tell me, what's got you spooked?"

"It's bad business, Ali, Bad business." Johnny shifted uncomfortably in his seat, the goons behind him nodded earnestly, "My father's got some ideas in 'is head, real smart ideas, but it's gonna be dangerous. See he's getting old and such and he wants ta do somtin' that will leave a lastin' impression for the future mafia boss' in our great country.

"An see, I don' think thas that big a deal but, he's gone a bit crazy as of lately. He's tryin' ta get some big people involved in some big jobs. An' see a lot a people are gonna die if he does his plan right, an one o'those key people is you."

Alice was silent for a while, then placed her tea cup on a box next to her, "So why are you telling me this? What's in it for you?"

Johnny sighed, "Maybe it's 'cause of my time with Frankie. Maybe I'm jus' goin' soft. But right now my dad ain't gonna give up on gettin' ya to join him. Things ain't good, and I've felt the sting of your cards and seen ya take down alo'ta guys, but ya can't fight against the whole mafia. Ya can't win with my dad on your tail, you're still just a girl, your fifteen, for god's sake. Until he-"Johnny looked sad for a moment, but there was determination in his eye's, "Until he dies, an' I take over the family business, you're gonna haf'ta run. An' keep runnin', I'll try ta help ya when I can, but I gotta lay low on the treason radar if I'm to keep my position and stop this."

Silence was again spread through the room, before Alice spoke again, "I'll leave after my heist, no sooner, I'll keep doing my business, if it gets bad I'll stop. But I don't want to be the fox in this hunt."

Johnny nodded but said, "Ali, sooner or later, tha's exactly how it will be."

***

Alice shook her head, clearing out the memories and turned her mind to what she had to do, she was the 'Alice of Aces' notorious around the world for her thievery in art and other miscellaneous items, known in Japan as Kato Alice, or Alice the Ace in most regions of Africa and South America depending on your translation. She was Alice, she had taken that name after her parent's death and forever would she be known as Alice, and her next job was to steal the 'Vase of Aquarius'.

So with that small motivational speech smiling its way across her mind, Alice casually walked a nice hotel and rang a bell for service.

"Hello, young lady, how may I help you?" Alice surveyed the approaching woman, she was an overly cheery woman in her late thirties who had dyed her hair too many times in her youth. Alice sized up the pros and cons of how to approach this woman, what identity to use, and with a hidden smirk suddenly looked timid and unsure. She dropped her voice to make her sound slightly older than what she really was, giving off the air of a budding adult who decided to travel whilst still in their youth.

"Um, yeah, uh. A room for one, please?" she said with slight southern US accent fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

The receptionist gave a kind and knowing (psh! Yeah right!), smile, "Do you have a mind for any room in particular?"

Alice gave a small smile, "Uh yeah, um…. I would like, if it's available, a room on the top floor, perhaps, with a view, if it isn't any trouble?"

The receptionist smiled and typed into a computer for about half a minute, "We do have a room available, do you have an idea of about how long you will be staying?"

Alice nodded her head, "Um like a month I think, I really don't know like maybe more or well it depends but maybe less, um, I'm sorry."

The receptionist smiled shaking her head, "It's no problem really, I need to know your name now."

"Yeah," Alice said, "Heh, my name is Sarah, Sarah Smithison, Sarah is spelled with an H and Smithison is spelled like 'Smith' but with an I and an 'S-O-N' at the end." She waited as the receptionist slowly typed it out on the computer.

"Will you be paying in cash, or credit?"

"Credit." Alice took out a card and gave it to the woman.

After the formalities were over, the receptionist handed her a small envelope with her key card, "Your room will be on the 12th floor, room 1204, please enjoy your stay!" the receptionist smiled.

Again Alice nodded this time with a smile, "I will thank you." She said walking away, the smile never dropped until the doors of the elevator were completely closed, then her smile turned into a satisfied smirk then dropped that and hit the button labeled "12".

Alice leant against the wall of the elevator and pulled out her hi-tech phone, Frank and Henry, her best resources, and the people that raised her sent their love in a nice little voice-mail singing rather loudly and out of tune the Broadway song "New York", changing the lyrics from 'New York' to 'London', a friend of theirs, Alex, was then bullied into mumbling a last 'London' at the end of the song, then added in a very mockingly British accent, "God save the Queen!". She was very happy she was alone in the elevator.

Alice sighed, shaking her head. Frank, a friend of her parents, and one of the very few people who knew her real name, took her in after her parents died, but he could be quite a lot to handle, he would be considered to be a bit extreme or eccentric, but her could be the most serious and caring person all in random intervals.

Once safely in her room she pulled up a museum site on her PDA, with the object she was planning to steal. Today, she would check out the museum and set up a plan of infiltration, then for two days she would go sight seeing to ward off suspicion, and on the fourth day pull off a heist to steal 'The Vase of Aquarius'.

She changed into her civilian clothes, a tee-shirt with the British flag under her usual black vest, and jeans instead of her black pants. She removed most of the weapons from her person and pulled a black fedora over her head. Taking the stairs down, she enjoyed a nice banister slide and stepped out into the lovely British streets. Taking a left at the end of the street she saw a motor cycle rental store and confidentially strolled toward it. Soon she was driving dawn the streets of London, her precious hat tucked safely inside her backpack, her steam punk goggles that doubled as her protective chemistry goggles blocked out the wind as she went through her mental map rout to the museum.

When she got to the museum she stood in front of it as through marveling at the beauty of the architecture. Which incidentally was exactly what she was doing, but also mentally noting the various air vents, heating ducts, and security measures around it. Inside she did a walkthrough of the museum committing to memory every detail of the area and is security with her photographic memory, then went back to the beginning of the museum to truly appreciate the art.

The item she was stealing was an interesting view on the zodiac sign of Aquarius, painted in the late fifteenth century with swirling dark blue-greens to a blue almost white, a very beautiful piece. But now that Alice had a proper look at the rest of the contents in the museum, there were a couple paintings she would rather steal. Shrugging Alice pulled out a sketch book and started to sketch the different pieces that caught her eye.

"Look! It's the Alice of Aces!" a cry came out over the crowd, Alice almost froze to her seat but calmed herself and shifted in her seat, some dumb collage guy started cracking up and the crowd instantly returned to normal. Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and placed her pencil back onto the paper.

As she finished her sketch of 'Blue Eyes in a Summer Moon' when she began to feel uneasy, there were too many men in suits of the same color with matching ties. Those men stood in the same area, not moving until they all switched places.

'Huh,' Alice thought to herself, 'This is interesting, olive skin, each one.' She passed by one who was conversing with a buddy of his and picked up a certain accent. "Greeks, Damn."

Alice "accidentally" knocked into one as they switched places, not surprised to find a hidden gun but slightly startled at the number of concealed knives. No government agent would carry that many weapons, it was mafia, the Greek division, no doubt. Alice again remembered her last meeting with her friend Johnny, and took one last look at the 'Vase of Aquarius' before she left the building.

As she exited the building a sense of anxiety swept over her, now she had to face the boredom that followed having to wait to steal her prize. She took a breath and glanced at her watch and mentally translated the time difference as she hadn't changed it from the L.A. time zone, five forty-two. Alice sighed, she may as well turn in early for all that is was worth. Revving the engine of her rented motorcycle, she drove back to the hotel. Alice made sure to give a cheery greeting to the receptionist, trudged wearily down the hall to her room tossing her backpack against the wall and sat in an arm chair and glanced at the clock.

Two days, just survive two days without any chemical explosions, invention experiments, or intentionally looking for trouble to find her….

But then again, she was never caught before…

As the clock on the hotel wall struck ten, Alice changed into her usual outfit of black pants, black vest, rubber gloves, and a white button down shirt. She re-adjusted her gun holster as she zipped up her sturdy boots, glad to have the familiar weight against her left leg, before finally placing her specialty weapon in her vest pocket, her sharpened deck of cards. Aside from various assortments of weaponry she tended to keep on her person including to regularly used pistol on her thigh, a specially made alloy of metal formed into the shape of cards and sharpened to the point where you could lose a finger if you pressed just a little too hard was Alice of Aces main weapon, she was the self taught expert at handling and using those cards, anyone else _would _lose a finger. Of course, most people only knew this after she had thrown one at them, in which case they would be either bleeding too much to care that they were defeated by playing cards, or dead.

She replaced her hat upon her head, and fished out a black masquerade mask and smiled, she tipped the hat low over her face and slipped up to the roof easily as she past the door alarms without a fingerprint.

On the roof Alice took in the night air stepping to the edge, looking out over the closely spaced rooftops, she then took several large steps back and opened her arms as though she were about to take flight, aligning her spine, smiling at the feel of it all. Then her eyes snapped open and her peaceful smile morphed into a flashy grin of determination as she took off leaping at the edge of the building and giving out a small shout of exhilaration. She could almost feel her own heart lifting her as she soared through the air. when she began to fall she quickly tucked in her knees keeping her arms out and flipped twice landing catlike on the second building then using the momentum of her landing shot off again into a sprint flipping up to a slightly higher building, slapping the edge of the roof with her hands she did a half cartwheel to land gracefully onto the third.

The great peaceful smile was upon her again, the exhilaration still pulsing in her veins but not through her cool head. Hopping over the edge of the last building, Alice landed in the ally way across from a twenty-four hour convenient store. For a moment Alice thought of grabbing a bottle of milk, but decided against it, with the way she was dressed, she would seem quite suspicious and idiotic.

Alice wandered back alleyways and let her mind wander over what she was doing, to escape boredom she, if in an appropriate place, would be tweaking with gadgets, inventing crap, messing around with unstable chemicals and doing other such experiments. Alice sighed to herself, that was about the safest thing she did, when she wasn't stealing anything, otherwise she would wander the streets keeping in mind all the research she would have in her head of the local criminals, she went looking for trouble and trouble found her, she would get into an exciting tussle, and later basically deposit the idiots on the doorstep of the police.

Somehow, what she did seemed too much like the obvious new criminal killer, the ones killed by heart attack. Alice imagined what it would be like to have the power to kill without being there, to kill as many as you wanted, and probably almost whoever you wanted. Alice climbed back up to another rooftop, as the alleyways disappeared to about one every five or so buildings. Was what she did any different? No. She caught the criminals, she didn't kill them…..all.

Then the high pitched cry of a child interrupted her thoughts and she launched herself into a full sprint leaping down from the roof into the alleyway from which the sound came. Looking up she caught a glimpse of two bodies and a man with a gleaming knife, hovering over a child curled up near a dumpster. Anger was a cold fire in her chest as she charged at the man giving him a flying kick to the head, sending his skull bouncing off a brick wall and he slumped to the ground.

Alice took some cautious steps to the man, the kid ran around hiding on the other side of the dumpster. As she got closer the man lurched out at her and as she flipped back, she saw someone who had trained skill with a knife, he immediately slashed at her as she regained footing. Alice, promptly taking out one of her cards blocked it, making it slide down her card away from her, and throwing him off balance, and as soon as he fell forward he rolled to the side and was back up.

Alice had just about enough of him, so with an easy, practiced motion, she tossed the card at him and he tilted his head falling backward to avoid it. As he was landing, Alice flew up to his side, stepped on the hand holding the knife, and with a fluid motion took out the gun on her thigh and shot him in the kneecap. He howled in pain, and Alice grabbed the man's collar heaving him up to her eye level.

"Who are you?" she growled giving him a shake, "Who?!"

The man looked her in the eye and spat on her face. Alice threw him to the ground, the force jarring his knee causing him to again howl in pain before she hauled him back up to her eye level.

"Who?!" she screamed at him.

The man blinked his eyes unfocused from pain, giving in to answer, he opened his mouth. "D-Dennis Halkias."

"Why did you kill those people? Why were you after that child?" She asked sharply.

" 's just my job. Nothing personal, just my job." Alice's face twisted with disgust, his eyes began to focus, his gaze meeting her merciless ones.

"You will be turned into the police, you will confess to every single sin you have ever made in the duration of your pathetic life," she lowered him to the ground gently, "and you will be thankful to be in jail, maybe, if you're lucky. There's enough evidence here to ensure your placement in chains, and if not," she leant over him, "I will find out. Then you'll have to pray to whatever god you have that I do not come across you again."

Alice stepped away and the man passed out, the cold fury inside of Alice began to ebb away, and Alice wrapped his wounds so he wouldn't die before the police got to him. She reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his wallet and cell phone. She pocketed the wallet and dialed for the police tossing the phone in a corner, her eyes gazed over to the two other bodies, a couple of some sort, she checked despondently for a pulse before stepping back. Alice stared at them for a moment not knowing what to do, most people would pray, but Alice had no god to answer to, so she dipped her head a little but sat up with a start as she heard a faint whimper. Walking around the dumpster, she saw the child, a boy, was still cowering in his corner Alice could see a cut across the boy's cheek.

Alice's face softened, and she stepped forward, "Hey, its okay now. He won't hurt you." Alice knelt down holding out her hand, "Come on, we have to get you out of here."

The little boy looked up and ran at her practically knocked her over, wrapping his arms around her neck, crying into her shoulder, weeping loudly in her ear.

"Shh, shh-shh, it's okay, it's okay," Alice consoled him picking the surprisingly light boy up and rocking him slowly, making sure he was facing away from the two bodies and the man, repeating her reassurance to the boy, and carefully backing out of the alleyway away from the gore.

"Come now, its okay, here," she said gently, pulling him away from her shoulder so he could see her, "My name is Alice, what's yours?"

The kid blinked and buried his face into her shoulder again muffling his reply, "min-foun"

"What?"

"J-Jason"

Alice smiled as the kid kept clinging to her, "Okay, Jason I'm going to ask you some important questions so I can get you home, okay?"

Jason nodded, Alice smiled sadly at him, "Were you with your parents when that man came?"

She heard a choked sob and her shirt got wetter, as he nodded. She held him in a hug as he wept harder.

"Your being such a brave boy, but I still need to ask you something, do you have any relatives? Did your parents have any close friends you could stay with?" she asked still rocking him slightly.

She heard a sniff and felt him shake his head, "No grandma or grandpa, no aunt, or uncle, no friends, no family, no-"

"Shh," Alice stopped him, "It's okay, you can come with me for now, we'll figure something out later. You need some rest, and someone to watch over you until I can get you settled, okay?"

She felt Jason nod sleepily, and fall quickly asleep on her shoulder as Alice set off for her hotel.

***

"Look! It's the Alice of Aces!" the Greek Mafia Heiress, the one known as 'Crescent Moon', Kera, pointed at the end of the art exhibit, laughing silently as her grunts took off running around looking for the art thief and she snuck into the safety of a ventilation shaft. The Greek mafia, which usually dealt only as intelligence specialists, as of late had been getting more violent and for some reason they wanted to find the Alice of Aces.

Even as the daughter of the mafia boss she had no idea why her father had almost all of their resources stationed in the various museums of London looking for the thief. All she knew was to find her, capture her, and bring her to him relatively unharmed. The thing was that their only lead was that there was a high probability that she would hit London next.

Kera had the least amount of grunts on her team, because although she was the best, she was more of the type to work alone. Her father would be angry for losing her team but he had thrown her the bottom of the pile in the intelligence range of men he had, and that more than slightly pissed her off.

As she watched the small commotion that was the result of the distraction for her escape, she noticed something that caught her eye. There was only one person who hadn't looked around to see what was going on, a girl about her size with silver hair cut just over her shoulders. This girl had stayed still only shifting slightly in her seat as though as though pretending that she had already looked around. This puzzled Kera, and what puzzled her usually intrigued her.

She watched the girl as she sketched some painting of a girl in a white dress on a gazebo next to a lake with a full moon over head. Her grunts returned to their positions and stood in place, Kera almost knocked her head against the grate of the vent for their stupidity.

"Of all the things stupid on this world, they have to act so obvious in this crucial time!" she mumbled to herself exasperated at exactly what she was forced to work with. One of the first rules in this sort of situation was to _blend in_, she was already upset about all of them wearing suits, it was just the icing on the cake that they had to stand around looking tall and mighty making a big show of being a member of the mafia.

She returned to watching the strange girl who was putting all of her supplies into her backpack, amazed at the fact that it all fit into that small backpack whilst still looking empty. She noticed all of her men moving to a different station and the girl almost fooled Kera into thinking that her knocking into one of them to be a mistake, the only reason she caught the ingenious move was because of the numerous accounts of her doing the same, It was one of the reasons Kera put a lot of her knives in less conventional places.

Kera tried to maneuver herself so as to see the face of her suspect but to no avail, the girls blasted fedora blocked her face as she quickly headed for the exit. Kera's suspicions of the girl were doubled from that one movement of expertise, it willed her to follow her, the chance that this could be the Alice of Aces was too much for her to ignore. It was tailing time.

She followed the girl to the parking lot of the museum and watched as the girl climbed onto a motorcycle, goggles now replacing the fedora but it was just as apt in hiding her identity, and slowly make it to the edge of the parking lot, waiting to join into traffic. As the girl waited, Kera swiftly maneuvered herself to pass behind the silver haired girl and placed a small tracking device on the back of the seat joining the crowd of people as they kept the side walks flooded.

Kera smirked slightly to herself as she followed the blip on her "mp3 player" screen. Eventually she came face to face with a hotel, she glanced at her watch reading six o'clock and decided to head back home, if this girl was up to anything, it would be done at night.

Walking back from the hotel, Kera was faced with a dilemma: if this girl was truly the Alice of Aces and Kera did turn her in, what would be done with her? Did she really want her father to have the knowledge she obtained? Though Kera had never personally had anything to do with the Alice of Aces, she knew that the girl would be her biggest competition, one of the only people that could ever match her own skills.

Kera honestly considered the girl her rival, and they had never even met before. She was obviously as intelligent, if not more so, than Kera was, and Kera respected her, this made her want to try matching wits with the girl on her own terms. But withholding information from her father, never turned out well.

The Greek mafia dealt in information, it used to be a mildly peaceful practice while her beloved grandmother was still the boss, but its name became more and more tarnished after she died. To withhold information from her father was to be found out eventually and tortured, either for the information hidden, or until the point was made that it would never be done again, if done twice, you would never be seen again. She had seen her father peel the skin off a man's back for doing such a thing, and he wouldn't hold back if it were his daughter.

Honestly, Kera feared her father, and one girl wasn't worth the pain that would eventually follow. Besides, the orders were to capture, if her father wanted the Alice girl killed he would have just told her. Her mafia didn't usually kill or maim unless completely necessary, it was about getting intelligence, selling intelligence, and on occasion a harmless kidnapping, usually for intelligence, they were notorious for financing their organization by these means.

As Kera walked toward the direction of temporary H.Q., her cell phone rang, "Yes?"

"It's me, I found out about the deal with us and the Alice of Aces."

"George? What did you find out? Why are we after her?"

"Slow down." Her friend said, "I can be positive now that we are being hired by the American mafia for this job, apparently they are paying a handsome sum for the trouble, which would explain why your father is so driven to find her."

"Greedy bastard." She impulsively growled out.

George chuckled slightly, "If I were anyone else, you'd be flayed."

Kera rolled her eyes, George was one of the very few people that had her trust, "Get on with it."

"Yes, Ma'am." She could still hear the smile in his voice before his tone became serious again, "I don't know why the American mafia wants her, it's probably something only your father would know. All I could find out is that they claim she may be a threat, but they definitely want her delivered to them alive. That's all that I could find out."

Kera nodded to herself uttering a "Thanks" closing her phone and slipping back into deep thought, how is an art thief a threat? After learning this much, could she just simply catch the girl and hand her over without any regard as to what would happen after? There was a greater purpose behind this, that was evident, and thus, Kera suddenly began to doubt the very thing that had ruled her whole life.

Just like that, Kera found herself standing in front of a large warehouse near the edge of the docks, sighing deeply she entered her temporary home through the side door.

A quick note on Kera's mother before we proceed: her mother wasn't the most sophisticated of women, and Kera more than once referred to her as a whore or slut, and she never associated her with being her mother. Her mother was, to the highest degree, a very beautiful woman, and Kera's father had impregnated her with Kera when she was just 16. After that her mother fell into prostitution, selling her body for information in the name of the Greek mafia.

This was one of the first things in the mafia that disgusted her, but if not for the love and guidance of her grandmother before she died, Kera might have ended up like her. Kera's father had taken the Greek mafia after she had been born and both her father and mother rarely spent any time with their daughter, it was in fact her grandmother that was responsible for almost all of her upbringing.

So she wasn't surprised to see, once she opened the steel doors to a room, her mother draped across three unfamiliar men, all of them seemed to be playing with a different part of her body. Her mother didn't even flinch as Kera entered the room, she simply gave her a sharp look that said 'go away I'm busy working' before focusing on giving the men around her as much pleasure as possible for their ministrations.

Again, Kera sighed at this, knowing that if her grandmother were still alive she would have put a stop to it, and felt slightly depressed that she was used to seeing her mother in such a way. She walked down another hallway to her father's office, she noticed, not for the first time how the steal blues of the walls were very obnoxious against the dark browns of the thin carpet, it all seemed too cramped.

The door to her father's office was slightly ajar, and Kera could hear his cold voice from the room, "We have almost all our men on the job….. we are positive she is here, it is only a matter of time….. we understand you want her alive, but we cannot fully guarantee her unharmed….. understandable, yes…." There was a long silence as her father listened to the other end of the line, Alice was most diffidently the center around this conversation, "Hm, interesting," her father continued, "I'm sure we could have a surgeon place this chip you speak of in her brain, but to what purpose?"

At that moment Kera's stomach dropped at what she was hearing, a chip, inside of her brain, it was horrifying. But then her father did something that sent chills down her spine, her father was laughing. A deep, evil, bark of laughter, one that Kera had never heard uttered from her fathers lips.

Kera backed away from the door hand over her mouth, as she heard the conclusion of his conversation, "Yes, the Alice of Aces is a threat to all of us… but I'm sure there is some way we can handle her, be sure to send for me once your procedure is in it's conclusion. It will be amusing to see that annoying spirit of hers crushed. Good day to you as well." And she heard the click of his receiver, followed by the scratch of a pen as he continued with paperwork.

Kera fought with her body for control of her fear, trying to stop the shaking of her body. This was far worse than anything Kera had anticipated, to say that this was what was happening to the Greek mafia. For a moment Kera tried to imagine herself stripped of willpower and let lose a violent shudder, no one deserved that, no one.

In a split second, Kera made up her mind and putting on an emotional mask she pushed open the door to his office sauntering inside, the scent of peppermint hitting her like a wave. Black hair, like hers, contrasted brightly against the white walls of his office, his muscles flexed as he carefully placed his pen down on the desk. Dark eyes met her green ones and he leant dangerously across his silver desk, his eyes screamed danger, shining with a malice that never left the cruelly narrowed pools.

"Well, Kera….Would you like to explain your little disappearing act to me?" he asked coolly.

"Sir?" Kera steeled herself

Her father's eyes narrowed dangerously, "You _left_ your men in that museum without instruction. Explain yourself."

Kera felt a weight on her shoulders, one that wasn't from the twenty-six knives stored in her coat, "It was a girl father, she was acting suspiciously, so I followed her. It's not my fault that those blundering buffoons couldn't keep up."

"You know better than to do such a thing…. Unless, did you find something?" he leant further in his chair, and Kera resisted a gulp

"No sir, she was merely a tourist, nothing special."

"Are you meaning to tell me," his voice grew frighteningly low, "that you left your men and your position, for nothing?"

Fear was a fickle friend within the mafia, and Kera felt it press in on her as his gaze pierced her own, she could almost feel his knife slicing easily into her flesh, but she didn't let her eyes waver from his until he turned his chair away.

"This _will_ be the last time I hear of something like this, you understand, or I _will_ have your ear for it." And with that he waved his hand in obvious dismissal.

Kera didn't let herself release a breath of relief until she entered her room, she had just lied to her father, the most powerful man she knew, the only person on this earth she ever feared. Still a bit shaky, Kera pulled a Pepsi from the mini fridge next to her bed. The Alice of Aces, for now at least, would be her dirty little secret.

Night fell and Kera was again in front of the hotel that sheltered the silver haired girl, puzzling over what to do, she leant against the building opposite the hotel, it didn't matter if she wasn't inconspicuous, it was night where everyone was suspicious to people no matter what they did. Kera wanted to know more about this Alice before she completely stuck her neck out on the chopping block, especially if there was the off chance that her suspicions were wrong. Then she would have to find some way to come in contact with her in order to warn her.

Various plans tumbled through her brain, which halted as she heard a clear lighthearted laugh, and Kera's head automatically looked up to the sound, a shape flipped past her line of vision onto the rooftop next to the hotel, landing easily on the other side.

Kera smiled to herself, 'That's her, the Alice of Aces' she thought as she ran down the street keeping to the shadows as though she were one, always keeping one eye on the figure as she leapt from building to building. Kera heard a scream from an ally ahead of her and turning she saw a man assaulting a small boy of about seven. Kera pulled out two knives from her waist when Alice dropped from the sky, with a quick mind Kera regretfully dived into the dumpster next to her, watching out of a rusted hole what Alice planned to do.

Kera was surprised at the well trained fighting style Alice had, more fluid and acrobatic than most martial arts, but it was just as effective. This Alice, Kera noted as the girl had the man by the collar, was quite different from being a mere art thief, she was much more trained, much more dangerous. Still Kera kept silent and marveled at the events in front of her, Alice had wrapped the wounds of the man and called the police.

Suddenly Kera's mind came to a halt, this was a perfect moment to take her down, it would be so simple to take her by surprise and hand her over, so easy, and yet… she hesitated. This Alice just saved this small boy, and though she had been merciless while fighting her enemy she had made sure he wouldn't die and that he would be picked up. This person she was ordered to find, the one the mafia wanted to use for their own selfish reasons, was a good person.

Kera watched as Alice talked with the small boy holding his shivering body in her arms, and at that moment, in a dumpster, covered in grime and surrounded by cardboard, she promised herself not to let the Greek or American mafia have her.

Thus her neck was on the chopping block, all there was left was the axe. She looked after Alice and the little boy walk by and she got out of the dumpster. Brushing herself off she walked over to a wall with a gleaming card embedded inside it, Kera tried to pull it out and felt the sting of metal. Kera hissed and sucked on her bleeding finger, walking away from the scene of the crime.

'This should be an interesting next couple of days.' She thought to herself.

***

Alice snuck back into her hotel room, giving a half-asleep Jason some bed clothes and a band-aid for his cheek, before placing him on the bed. Instantly he curled up into the blankets and was again asleep.

Alice, too tired to change, sat in an arm chair, swinging her legs over the side of the chair.

"I'm in over my head," she told herself pulling her hat over her eyes drifting to sleep, "Way over my head."

* * *

Wow, that's the longest chapter i've ever written, this wll be hard to update, don't worry, I have a gorrilla with a baseball bat named tsuki to threaten me to get another one up as soon as I can. I'm not used to writing like this yet so bear with me.

R&R Please! I hope you enjoyed our first installment of this sereis! ^^


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